today president obama announced he is investing millions of dollars in brain power. the president unveiled a $100 million initiative to fund research of the human brain. the hope is to not only discover new technologies but new treatments for alzheimer's and epilepsy. the project will involve both government and private scientists. that's it for me. i'm frederica whitfield. "the lead" with jake tapper starts right now. chicago mayor rahm emmanuel is with us this afternoon but i assure you, parents, there will be no cursing. i'm jake tapper and this is "the lead." the national lead an nra task force lays out ideas to put a good guy with a gun in every school. ill xae mayor emmanuel how that is going to apply in chicago which buries hundreds of people from gun violence every year. also in national news, cheating on standardized tests but not by students -- by the school officials responsible for administering them. now they're getting the ultimate detention in a jail cell.

and the money lead. if there was a traffic sign that represented the auto industry a few years ago it would be rough road ahead. did it take a little italian car maker to help turn chrysler turn the corner? the national lead. it is an idea that could lead to kinderrten teachers carrying glocks, principals spending extracurricular time at target ranges. today a task force commission by the nra unveiled a report to make schools safer. the most controversial idea would put more guns in our nation's schools. the task force backed off the notion of putting armed volunteers in schools but wants to see more teachers and administrators trained and armed. former republican congressman asa hutchinson is leading the task force and urging action on his recommendations. >> if you are interested in making our school safer and to save children's lives, look at these recommendations seriously.

>> we've seen so many newtown parents advocating for gun control after 20 children were killed in a senseless massacre in december. but today we saw a newtown parent standing with the nra's task force. >> i think politics need to sort of be set aside here and i. >> howie: th-- i hope this doest lead to name calling but rather this is recommendations for solutions -- real solutions that will make our kids safer. >> if there is a city that sees the toll of gun violence every single day it's chicago. more than 500 homicides last year and almost 90% of them were gun related. yet chicago has some of the most strict gun control laws in the nation. and chicago mayor rahm emmanuel joins me now. thanks for joining us. one of the recommendations issued today is that more individuals, more adults in schools become proficient in guns. i'm wondering your reaction to that. >> look, i think that is not what schools are for and that's not where you want the time and

training for principals and teachers. you want that on education of our children. there is a whole host of things to do different as it relates to safety in schools but training principals and teachers on use of hand guns is not one of them. >> a lot of people look to the city of chicago when they say here is a city with some of the strictest gun control laws in the country and although crime and homicide has gone down, this year, it still has a staggeringly high homicide rate. how do you reconcile that? >> well, jake, first of all, as you know march our homicides dropped nearly 70%. in february it dropped 50%. in the first three months they are down a total of 50 homicides. 42%. so it's a very significant drop and one of the most -- march was one of the biggest one-month drops in the history of the city of chicago. the second is, you know, people in the city of chicago, there are gun purchases done in indiana and brought over so you need a uniform policy on gun

control. as i've always said, it comes down to the four piece. it's not one of them. it's all of them. policing, being strategic about your police resources. smart prevention like after school programs and summer jobs to make sure kids have positive things to do and are out of harm's way. stiffer penalties like three-year minimum for gun crimes. first prevent people from getting guns, criminals. second, if criminals commit crimes there is swift punishment. and fourth, pete, is sound parenting. teaching kids right from wrong. all four of those ps have to work. yes we have good and strong gun laws but we're as good as comprehensive working our policing and parenting and prevention programs as the actual background checks are that apply to indiana where a lot of purchases are made before the gun ends up in the city of chicago. so you have to be smart about it. you have to, yes, have stiff gun control laws. i believe firmly in preventing

criminals getting access to them but you have to focus on every one of those aspects to in my view have a policy that makes sure you have police on the street getting kids, guns, and drugs off the street. all of those have to work. not one of them and not one of them being allowed to take off the table as if it's not part of the over all solution to safety and security of our streets. >> the president is hitting the road tomorrow to start campaigning further for greater gun restrictions. do you regret when you were white house chief of staff that the white house in the first term under president obama did not do more on this issue? >> look, as you know, as chief of staff and you remember because you were there, you were covering it, you were covering the decisions made to take the auto industry on its knees to close to collapse and make sure those jobs were created and made sure that the auto industry came back to the point it is today that it's adding more jobs than it was when the president was there. that was a crisis he inherited and was one that took a lot of time and energy to fix.

in the same way the economy was head over heels towards what is now known as the great recession. it took a lot on that aspect and the financial sector. and to govern as president kennedy said is to make a set of choices. and the president made a set of choices to put in place the things that were necessary given the financial, economic, and auto manufacturing crises he faced. not one of them. not two of them. all three of them simultaneously. for people who kind of looked back and said in the middle of the financial and auto scandal he should have done x, there are choices you make. and he has properly given other things that have happened in america making sure that washington now gets in place the gun control laws that are necessary to prevent criminals access to guns. but the notion that somehow in retrospect you should have pushed the auto industry crisis to the side or the financial crisis to the side, you were there covering it and you know

what the state of mind and where we were at that time. so this is where he is now in the second term and taking control of this situation, making sure we have for the first time since when i was in the white house with president clinton and was a point person for passing both the brady bill and assault weapon ban that we have the opportunity actually on making progress on getting sound, comprehensive gun control legislation that worked with policing, prevention programs, and encouraging strong parenting. >> lastly, mr. mayor, i'd be remiss if i didn't ask you, former secretary of state hillary clinton is speaking this evening and it's garnering a lot of media attention and buzz. she is the power player if she decides to run for president. do you think she is beatable if she runs for the democratic nomination? could anyone beat her? >> well, i think that's way ahead of yourself, jake. fwhau would -- but that would not be the first time anybody in the media got ahead of themselves. she'll speak.

she has a lot of excitement. you know how close i am to the clintons. no doubt she has a lot to offer if she decides to do that. there is no doubt both on her record as former first lady, secretary of state, senator, from the state of new york, she has a lot to offer. >> you're not even going to touch it whether or not anybody could beat her? >> why don't we go back and talk about the 69% drop in homicides in chicago. >> all right. mayor emmanuel, thank you so much for joining us today. >> thanks, jay. ever wonder why so few folks responsible for the financial crisis steamed have been punished in any way? well, some say those in charge of regulation and enforcement did not do their jobs with the vigor and aggressiveness necessary. why would that be? today we learned the former head of the u.s. securities and exchange commission mary shapiro is joining a consulting firm which advises you guessed it financial firms. the mission of the s.e.c. and i quote is to protect investors

and maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets. shapiro took the helm at the embattled s.e.c. in june of 2009 and while many praise her for restoring the all but nonexistent of that agency at that time, she's also been criticized for never fully holding wall street accountable for the worst misdeeds that caused the financial crisis. her announcement comes days after we learned that the assistant attorney general in charge of the criminal division of the justice department has left the justice department and rejoined the law firm of camington and burling as vice chaim representing a big list of bank clients tied to the financial crisis. he was criticized for not pursuing prosecution against big bank malfeasance while at the justice department. neither responded to our requests for comment. it was hailed as an 'em ik turn-around. atlanta schools went from bad to good in a matter of years. now teachers are accused of cheating in order to line their own pockets. but is the federal government

partly to blame? plus, how much does city hall go for these days? a new york mayoral candidate is accused of trying to bribe his way on to the ticket. our national news continues next. welcome to the new new york state. what's the "new" in the new new york? a new property tax cap... and the lowest middle class income tax rate in 60 years... and a billion dollars in tax breaks and incentives. new opportunities for business. over 250,000 new private sector jobs were created over the last two years. and 17 straight months of job growth. with the most private sector jobs ever. lower taxes, new incentives, new jobs, now that's news. to grow or start your business in the new new york visit thenewny.com we asked total strangers to watch it for us. thank you so much. i appreciate it. i'll be right back. they didn't take a dime. how much in fees does your bank take to watch your money? if your bank takes more money than a stranger, you need an ally.

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covered by most insurance plans, including medicare. find your co-pay cost at myflexpen.com. ask your health care provider about novolog® flexpen today in other national news charges of racketeering and theft and corruption in two states but we're not talking about the mob. we begin with atlanta's public school system. 35 teachers, and school administrators, indicted for filling in the right answers on the students' standardized tests starting back in one 2001. why? to make it look like the kids were improving faster than they really were. those teachers have until midnight tonight to turn themselves in. several have already done so. joining me now randy weingarten president of the american federation of teachers. you issued a statement about this scandal saying it, quote, crystalizes the unintended consequences of our test crazed policies. what did you mean? >> first, jake, let me also say

that in that statement and throughout this period of time we have to say at the outset that cheating cannot be condoned and this is a very sad day for atlanta and, frankly, our union, our local back in 2005 when they saw the irregularities, whistle blew the situation and was ignored. the bottom line is we can't condone cheating and the vast number of teachers do an extraordinary job and do not seccumb to cheating but at the same time we've seen in city after city and state after state an environment and climate that says the tests are more important than anything else for kids, for teachers, and for schools. more important than teaching and learning. more important than critical thinking. more important than problem solving. more important than integrity. >> but most of the teachers and administrators in this system seem to have thad no problem operating within the confines of the law. the scores, the state testing

scores have gone up. not just with these specific teachers and administrators but across the state. so why do you think this is related to teaching to the test as opposed to just teachers trying to get ahead? we know the administrator got big bonuses based on these improvements. >> you know, if you talk to teachers about getting paid based upon test scores, they will universely recoil from it and get very insulted by it. but at the same time, what we've seen was in 37 or 38 different places this huge emphasis on testing and it has narrowed the curriculum and has done -- and, worse, a lot of the tests that we have right now are not even correlated to what kids really need in a knowledge economy. but you are right. most people did not seccumb to cheating. most people in atlanta did the right thing. but what we're seeing throughout

the united states is that much more time is focused on testing as opposed to teaching and learning. let's take florida. in florida you have almost 80 days a year where some testing is going on in any particular school district. in new york state where i served on the cuomo commission, we saw from some superintendents in rochester, monroe county, they told us in the first four weeks over 20,000 pretests were being given to kids to 4,000 kids in that district. >> all right. thank you so much. we'll have you on again to talk more about education reform. >> thanks. good luck with the gig. >> thank you so much. from atlanta to new york city where in the race to replace mayor bloomberg comes a case prosecutors are calling an unadvertising smorgasboard of graft and greed and reads like a sleazy dime store mofl from yester year. a democratic state senator who wanted to be the next mayor but good luck now figured his best chance was to run as a republican so he allegedly

bribed gop county leaders to back him with money he got from a real estate tycoon. too bad the guy bank rolling him was actually an undercover fbi agent. for today's installment of explain this to me we turn to erl lewis. who is this guy? >> malcolm smith used to be the top democrat in the new york state senate so had a lot of power in 2009. his colleagues unfortunately dumped him after about six months. his star was not exactly on the rise. then he just decided that maybe he could run for mayor. everyone mesmerized by the fact there are so few republicans in new york city if you can round up even less than 50,000 votes you can be the nominee and if you get a stroke of luck as mayor bloomberg did or rudolph guiliani did it's tantalizing. people think maybe they can become mayor. >> fascinating. errol, cash changing hands, parking lots, hushed

conversations in restaurants, is this how business is done in new york city? >> one of the people arrested said that but i can name you dozens if not hundreds of others who really sort of play it straight. the characters who were arrested are far from the a team. very undistinguished. sort of a freshman city council member. malcolm smith i just described. these are guys who weren't necessarily going to light up the sky any other way. i haven't heard anybody yet say, jake, that they're terribly surprised this happened. >> all right. errol lewis, thank you so much. >> thank you. hash tag you're it. help out the new york tabloids. send us your best headlines for the new york city bribery scandal. tweet your ideas to at the lead cnn. use the hash tag headline help. we'll read the best ones on air at the end of the show. thinking of buying a new car? you and everyone else. the u.s. auto industry is on the comeback trail and it has the recession to thank for its turnaround. our money lead is next. ♪

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the money lead. it looks like motor city has found its mojo. detroit's big three saw a surge in auto sales last month the biggest in almost six years but, surprise, surprise, it's not the economy or even the better business model fueling the come back. cnn money correspondent zain asher is live in new york to explain this all to us. what is behind the numbers? >> it's a number of things. first we've got the record low interest rates. that's making car financing attractive. right now you're looking at just under 2.5% for a car loan compared to more than 4% in 2006. so things are very cheap right now. also want to talk about the average american car right now is pretty old. roughly around 11 years old.

the oldest it's ever been. people are ready to switch over to new and head to the show rooms again. plus, home sales, construction, and renovation activity, as that increases you'll see a big boost in pickup sales because that is what independent contractors tend to drive. definitely good news for american car manufacturers. >> how do the numbers compare to the sales of foreign cars here in the u.s.? >> well, it's all over the map. the big three american car companies, gm, ford, and chrysler, were all up between 5% and 6%. some foreign car companies like honda saw an even bigger increase whereas toyota and nissan had slightly slower months roughly around 1%. it's big a big turn-around for american car companies. they tend to focus more on pickup trucks than suvs and were hurt very badly during the financial crisis partly because the vehicles tend to go for more gas. also among businesses that buy pickup trucks were closing down. now we're seeing things slowly start to turn around. u.s. car companies also want to mention they're trying

desperately to compete with asian cars adding more bells and whistles. so ford's got the system, chevy has a system working with smart phones to integrate music into the driving experience. they're trying to compete with the asian counterparts as well. >> how does the future look? experts predict 15 million cars will be sold this year right before the financial crisis. 16.5 million cars were sold. so not really that far off. also as the housing market improves we'll see a big boost in car sales especially with pickup truck. one problem i want to mention might be urbanization. more people moving to cities to find work that might have a slightly negative impact on car sales. overall, though, a lot working in the car manufactures' favor right now. the upward trend should continue. jake? >> do you have a car, zane? or are you one of the new yorkers who takes the subway every year? >> i used to drive a car in l.a. but now i take the subway. >> all right. will she or won't she? i don't even know what i'm having for breakfast but

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welcome back to the lead. i'm jake tapper. the politics lead. nothing to see here. just private citizen hillary clinton. she leaps back into the spotlight today with the money already lining up. here come the questions about 2016. the world lead. the north korea crisis heating up as in heating up an old nuclear reactor and the u.s. answers with a massive missile destroyer. is the pentagon making all the right moves? the pop lead. i can picture it now. clint eastwood turning to an empty chair and asking, who the heck is lady gaga? details of the rnc's big money plan to get her to perform at the convention and how they got

rejected. the world lead. the situation in north korea seems to be careening increasingly out of control by the day. the u.s. military now says that it has a second destroyer in the region after the north announced it is restarting a nuclear reactor and leaving no doubt that it plans to use that reactor to try to make nuclear weapons. the reactor is in yonbyun and north korea shut it down years ago after six-party talks including the u.s. the company made a big show of imploding a cooling tower in 1998. now north korea is turning it on again giving the usual line how it will use the facility to generate electricity and also saying for the first time it will be used tlos to make nuclear weapons. this comes a day after the u.s. decided to park a destroyer that can shoot down missiles near the korean peninsula. today the pentagon announced a second destroyer is in the

region but the white house says it is hardly shocked by the north's latest provocation. >> north korea's announcement it will reopen or restart its nuclear facilities is another indication of its, you know, pattern of contradicting its own commitments and its pattern of violating its international obligati obligation. >> the head of the united nations sounded a lot more alarmed. secretary general ban ki-moon who is south korean, says the rhetoric is already way over the line. >> it is my duty to prevent war and to pursue peace. it is also my responsibility to state that the current crisis has already gone too far. nuclear threats are not a game. >> for weeks the u.s. has been hoping north korea's biggest ally china would try to reign in their communist buddies. china today finally expressed

its regret. that is the word they used. regret. over north korea relaunching its nuclear reactor. not the strongest condemnation but the u.s. government will take what it can get. 6,000 lives, that's how many syrians were killed not in the past year or six months or three months. that was how many died just in march. the deadliest month in the civil war's two-year history. some fear the death toll will become the new normal. so what will make it stop? joining me now is the go-to authority on what is happening in syria andrew tabler who briefed the staff of the senate foreign relations committee just today on the latest developments and is the author of the book "in the lion's den" an eyewitness account of washington's bat welassad's syria. thanks for being here. 6,000 dead is horrific. is this a tipping point the fact that so many syrians were killed in this one month? will the u.s. or other countries now be forced to do something? >> it is really difficult to tell. certainly everybody realizes the situation is spinning out of control. syria is literally melting down

as a state and as a country. the question is what to do. until now, the u.s. has stayed on the sidelines largely trying to shape the opposition but it's increasingly difficult to look at syria in the coming years as staying in one piece and the human death toll refugee flows and so on are just going way beyond estimates and now washington is struggling to come up with a policy response that makes sense. >> there are a lot of people who say why would we get involved in libya but not get involved in syria? i've heard president obama and the white house explain. what is your perspective? >> i think that there are several problems. the syrian conflict is much more complicated than libya. also happens later in the arab spring. but in the end -- >> less energy, less impetus to do something. >> that's right. it is something where there are a lot more factors that -- but there wouldn't be a more vital geographic area for the united states i think than the middle east. it affects everything. most of our major allies.

turkey, israel, iraq, and jordan. so the spill over from the conflicts threatens those states and threatens the regional security as syria descends into a failed state. >> what is president obama's red line? he said chemical weapons and there was a report that turned out not to be accurate about chemical weapons. >> officially he has a red line -- originally use or movement. then it became use. now it is unclear what kind of substance that would be. he does still have this red line. he calls it a game changer, if chemical weapons are used but it would depend on what chemical agent and we still aren't clear on that from the white house. >> my last question is just a yes or no. do you think this ends with bashir al assad alive? >> no. >> thank you so much. ever wonder what is going on in someone else's head? president obama is here to help. his latest initiative hopes to unlock the mysteries of the brain. but is it money well spent? our political lead is next.

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the politics lead. all right. show of hands, guys. how many of you really thought we'd seen the last of hillary clinton when she stepped down as secretary of state? i don't see a lot of hands. probably no surprise that a few months into her new life as private citizen clinton is already headed back to the public stage. the lead's erin mcpike is here with phase one of clinton's re-emergence. >> she is hard at work on a book about her time at the state department and foreign affairs due out in 2014. also in the coming months she'll

be talking about the economy and housing so pretty wide range of issues, right? well, her spokesman said to me today that she can walk and chew gum at the same time and isn't that something that we're used to hearing from our presidential hopefuls? here she comes again. just two months have gone by since hillary clinton left the state department saying she wanted to finally enjoy life as a private citizen. but it didn't take long to get her out of the sweats and back into the spotlight. on tuesday evening she is set to make her first official speech since leaving public life. on friday, she'll headline a women's event in new york and later this month a housing event in dallas. her first paid speech for an undisclosed sum. in june, she heads to the economic club of grand rapids in michigan. >> she's no less interesting to people now than she was two years ago, five years ago, ten years ago, or 20 years ago. >> of course, those close to her

say despite her pledges to take it easy she prefers to stay busy. >> i am very proud to have been secretary of state. i will miss you. i will probably be dialing ops just to talk. >> but her roll out as a private citizen has all the makings of an agenda. >> a few years ago bill and i celebrated as our own daughter married the love of her life and i wish every parent that same joy. >> that video despite promising this just weeks ago. >> you know, i am out of politics right now. i don't know everything i'll be doing. >> but it seems like no one really believes her. is it really a coincidence that around the same time she's making her first big outing the ready for hillary pac launched? on staff is a group of fundraisers. some who worked for her first presidential bid and others tied to her big donors. but despite some evidence to the contrary, hillary's top

spokesman insists she really is undecided about running for president. >> it looks like what was a definite i'm not going to do this again has changed and she is 50/50 so we hear from some people around her. >> yeah. i would like to meet these folks because they seem to know more than she does. i think people aren't just getting ahead of themselves. they're getting ahead of her. it really -- 60 days has been the blink of an eye. we're talking about an election 1300 days away. >> for now public protests have left her potential opponents in limbo. other democrats are tiptoeing around their intentions to run and republicans are unsure of when they can start attacking her. until then, you can bet hillary clinton will keep dancing around the idea of whether or not she'll run for president again. now, republicans tell me they are very concerned about a

potential clinton cornation in 2016 and, jake, there is a new super pac out called america rising that is going to be dedicated over the next few months even to collect research on some of these potential democrats. but their first order of business is going after hillary clinton so they're going to be getting this research together to define her and engage her before she can even put a campaign in place. it is only 2013 so starting early. >> my god. super pac already. interesting. let's bring in our political panel, jonathan martin, and my other guests. you used to work as a senior adviser to mitt romney's campaign. let me start with you. >> yeah. >> so it sounds like the super pac wants to do for hillary what democratic super pacs did to mitt romney, define him early and get him established. all the bad stuff. >> there is just a lot of stuff out there. hillary clinton's been public life for the better part of two

decades so one thing i think the republicans figured out after this election, the democrats did a very good job of researching and putting in opposition research on candidates and doing it early. and so the group that erin references in her lead-in there i think will probably be thinking a lot about that and using outside resources essentially to make sure we have a good understanding of what's going on with hillary clinton and joe biden and andrew cuomo and martin o'malley and a bunch of other folks. >> they're focusing on hillary first. >> we learned a lesson. put it that way. >> so the philippes of the world look at us and think they are so annoying. she is just living her life. yes without question we are annoying. but, i mean, this isn't invented. i mean, this is a possibility of a candidacy here. >> the media is talking about it because every democratic and gop political operative and politician is talking about it right now. it is the talk you cannot escape. think about it. who among nonincumbents this far

out -- probably eisenhower was the last person who was not a vice president or incumbent president who this far from a campaign seemed so formidible. >> she wouldn't have put out that video for the gay rights group, human rights campaign. >> she could easily have written an op-ed, put out a statement two paragraphs long. the fact she cut a video speaks volumes. >> you are in the inner circle, outer circle, medium circle. >> there is only one person in the circle and that is hillary clinton. you are in a circle. i don't know how to label it. >> trapezoid. >> fine. what are you hearing? people want her to run. people around her want her to run. people are ready for her to make the decision and just being patient. >> well, tonight she'll be speaking at the kennedy center for her group vital voices which she founded in the late '90s and outside of the kennedy center, the ready for hillary group is going to have supporters outside with signs and cheering and sending their message that they will be ready if and when she does run. that's a group to keep an eye

on. because they're doing important work to get everything in place should she decide. and she is the only person who will know. >> you know, the interesting thing is all the outside groups that have popped up, the super pacs that say run hillary run. she will have to deal with that for probably a year and a half, them trying to entice her in and we'll respond to that almost every time. she has enormous leverage. i believe she'll probably go to the beach, get a tan, chill out for a while, but the leverage she's got is unbelievable. >> let me turn to the subject of guns because obviously the nra backed group put out other recommendations. you heard rahm emmanuel earlier today saying he didn't think teachers or administrators needed to focus on guns in schools. they needed to focus on education. where does the gun debate go from here, specifically? the senate is going to be introducing legislation. walk us through what is going to happen. >> i think they're going to try to have a background check expansion and the question is can they even find votes for that? it is quite a comedown from the

days after sandy hook when there was talk of much more extensive regulation. to me it is still a question of whether joe manchant a very conservative democrat can pull together enough conservative democrats to get the bill passed and out of the senate. let alone talking about other bills coming out. >> do you think it could possibly hurt republicans to block even something has seemingly ib okay useeming ly innocuous as background checks. >> i think there is an opportunity for that but it is not a clear cut issue. to jonathan's point there are probably seven or eight key swing democrats in the senate many of whom come up for re-election in 2014 and i'm not sure the president going on the road necessarily is going to turn the corner with respect to some of these swing votes. so, you know, it really breaks down on a geographic basis. this is a can issue with respeco republicans from urban, nonurban districts. suburban, outside.

the further you go the further in the south you go you'll just not change a lot of minds on this issue. so there is probably some opportunity for common ground around background checks but much beyond that i don't know. >> well, i think when the president going out is actually a terrific thing and his message, he's got the biggest megaphone, the platform. today with the nra's press conference, it seems like a strong sign when the head of the organization isn't the one speaking. they have the message delivery problems. i think the president is going to do quite well next week. we are in an evolutionary period with the gun control efforts. all of the measures that jonathan was mentioning are certainly going to be on the table. and i think the president and others, the mayors, mayor emmanuel, others should be commended because they are keeping that conversation in the right place and they also are effective messengers. i question the nra's effectiveness. >> all right. we'll leave it there. thanks so much. we'll have you on again. what would it cost to get lady gaga and mitt romney on stage together? i guess a lot more than a

million dollars. the superstar reportedly turned down a gig at the rnc but for plenty of stars money talks. the pop lead is next. if there was a pill to help protect your eye health as you age... would you take it? well, there is. [ male announcer ] it's called ocuvite. a vitamin totally dedicated to your eyes, from the eye care experts at bausch + lomb. as you age, eyes can lose vital nutrients. ocuvite helps replenish key eye nutrients. ocuvite has a unique formula not found in your multivitamin to help protect your eye health. now that's a pill worth taking. [ male announcer ] ocuvite. help protect your eye health.

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the pop culture lead. she once wore a dress made of meat but it looks as if even lady gaga has her limits. she reportedly turned down an offer of $1 million to play at the republican national convention. it's probably not much of a surprise seeing as how gaga isn't exactly known for her conservative views but had she taken the offer she would not be the first celebrity to put a paycheck before principles.

in fact, for many of today's top entertainers money talks. as cnn's john berman reports it can make for some bizarre bed fellows. >> mitt romney and paul ryan. >> mitt, paul, and stephanie as in stephanie germanato as in lady gaga. lady gaga at the republican convention? could it have happened for real? court documents indicate a gop group offered $1 million for gaga to perform in tampa last summer at an event honoring women who run for public office. she didn't do it. apparently dolly parton was also invited. she chose to stick to her 9:00 to 5:00, too. but the very idea of lady gaga at the republican convention might have ruffled some feathers with fans who embrace her support of gay rights and same sex marriage. some little monsters might have considered it an indecent proposal. >> suppose i were to offer you

$1 million for one night with your wife. >> okay. not that kind of indecent proposal but sometimes celebrity celebrations and wealth lead to complicated bed fellows. actress hillary swank split with her management after she appeared at a party for a chechen leader accused of all kinds of human rights violations. she later gave the money to charity. beyonce? serenading all the single ladies and at least one son of the libyan dictator gadhafi in 2009. she later said she gave all her proceeds reportedly $1 million to haiti earthquake relief. mariah carey did similar gadhafi bashes. all their careers seem ontrack. so, too, jenny from the block. jennifer lopez once earned around $2 million to sing for a russian billionaire. elton john, hold me closer tiny

dancer, and rush limbaugh. mr. john sang at limbaugh's 2010 wedding telling "usa today" they became friends. he sends me the lovliest e-mails. 50 cent in the club and at the bar mitzvah for the daughter of one-time defense contractor david brooks. but the king of pop, and pay? in 1996 michael jackson did a private party for the sultan of bruni. the reported price tag? $16 million. no, you really can't beat it. back to the republican convention for a minute you know they didn't get lady gaga in tampa. they didn't get dolly parton. but they did get journey and the band reportedly made about $500,000 in the process. you might say, everyone won. sort of. jake? >> thank you, john. as for lady gaga's decision to turn down the rnc she wasn't

alone. in addition to dolly parton the gop got pit bull. hell has no furgty like a john stewart scorned. the daily show host is mocking him for having his egyptian counterpart arrested. he made fun of morsi on his tv show so last night stewart stood up for his fellow comedian and took morsi to task. >> so he pokes fun at your hat and your lack of promised democratic reforms. what are you worried about? you're the president of egypt. you have an army. he's got a show. you have tanks and planes. we should know. we still have the receipts. >> the state department has weighed in citing a disturbing trend in egypt on restrictions on free speech. do you wish you worked at an ad agency? are you haunlted by the song "the zuby zoo?"

you are likely on pins and needles waiting for "mad men" this sunday but perhaps an all access pass to the sterling cooper headquarters will be enough to tide you over. it's like walking into a time capsule. it's a museum. thursday on "the lead" in an exclusive behind-the-scenes look we'll show you where all the mad men magic happens and talk to a few familiar faces about what's in store for season six. and now wolf blitzer is here to tell us what is coming up on the situation room. are you a fan of mad men? >> i just saw ben feldman standing over there. >> i go there. i interdo you some of these actors some of the actors including the kid who plays ginsberg and the first thing he says, do you know wolf blitzer? >> i'm going to ben's wedding later this year. he is a great actor. i knew him in high school, in junior high school. >> you know what else he said to me? he said you are able to do the dougie. >> everybody knows that. not inside information. >> who do you have?

>> asa hutchinson coming in. >> the guy who -- >> going to talk about how to protect kids at schools and should they extend background checks to be sure kids can be protected. and newt gingrich. always exciting. he'll be in "the situation room" as well. you know what i'm going to ask based on what i just heard from your report? >> what? >> does he think hillary clinton should run for president? >> a good question. >> i am always curious to see what newt has to say. >> that sounds good. a musician, producer, investor and cultural icon. now jay-z is adding sports agent to his resume. is that for real? our sports lead is next. humans.

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find your co-pay cost at myflexpen.com. ask your health care provider about novolog® flexpen today [ male announcer ] engine light on? come to meineke now for a free code scan read and you'll say...my money. my choice. my meineke. the sports lead. the yankees second baseman robinson kno dumped his agent and hired jay-z to represent him. mr. z is well known for representing but not really for representation. yet here is a picture showing the rapper locking down the first client. details are a bit sketchy. he'll actually be corepresented by creative artists agency partnering with jay-z so it